This invention relates to a field emission type fluorescent display device and a method for driving the same, and more particularly to an improvement in a field emission type fluorescent display device wherein an electron emission region of a field emission cathode is divided into a plurality of unit regions for matrix driving, to thereby permit an anode facing the field emission cathode to carry out a graphic display and a method for driving the same.
Now, a conventional field emission type fluorescent display device will be described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18, wherein FIG. 17 generally shows a conventional fluorescent display device and FIG. 18 electronically analytically shows the fluorescent display device. The conventional flied emission type fluorescent display device, as shown in FIG. 17, generally includes a field emission cathode 103 including a cathode conductor 100, emitters 101 and a gate 102, and an anode 104 having a phosphor arranged in a manner to face the field emission cathode. The anode 104 and gate 102 each constitute an individual electrode and have a positive bias voltage applied thereto. Also, the cathode conductor 100 is divided into a plurality of unit regions 105 so as to correspond to unit luminous regions of the anode 104. The unit regions 105 are arranged in a matrix-like manner and connected to thin film transistors 106 for driving, respectively, resulting in being matrix-driven.
The conventional field emission type fluorescent display device thus constructed, as described above, is so constructed that the anode 104 and gate 102 constitute individual electrodes, respectively, and are arranged so as to face each other. Also, the anode 104 And gate 102 each have a positive bias voltage constantly applied thereto. For example, the anode 104 has a positive voltage of 100 V applied thereto and the gate 102 has a positive voltage of 400 V applied thereto, so that electron beans emitted from each of the unit regions 105 of the cathode conductor 100 are substantially diffused as shown in FIG. 18, resulting in a failure in a high-density display by fine luminous dots because of failing to provide a gap between the dots sufficient to prevent leakage luminescence. Also, this leads to another disadvantage of causing excitation of luminous dots of which luminescence is not desired.